Victoria Lin High School Student

“I’m currently in my senior year of high school. I have taken private art classes before when I was 6 but stopped at 13. Now, the artworks I create are mostly self-guided or assignments given by my school art teachers. I’ve spent most of my life creating art, making it a crucial part of who I am and what motivates me to keep at it every day.

This portfolio has taken me 18 months to create. Before most of my final pieces, I spent time doing planning sketches to help organize my thoughts. My creative process involves gathering images of other artist’s work to study their uses of medium and color.

With this critique, I hope I can get advice on what I should add or remove from my portfolio, especially regarding the sketchbook pages since I don’t know how many pages is enough. Some questions I have are:

-Do I show enough variety in subject matter?

-Many portfolios include graphite/charcoal self portraits, figure drawings, and still lifes. Are these pieces unwritten “must-haves” in a portfolio?

-What is the most effective way to organize my portfolio?

-Which pieces are unnecessary/ need more work?

As a short-term goal, I want to create a portfolio that I’m proud of and be accepted to my top choice art school. I’m interested in illustration and concept art and would love to pursue a career in that field in the future.”